Successful business process management initiatives require both near and long term planning and goal setting, and the goals and means by which to achieve them must be supported by executives across the organization. Without clear alignment on the goals and commitment to the BPM process, organizational resistance will defeat the initiative. BPM requires strong communication both within and across departmental boundaries. Handoffs between departments are notorious for providing the greatest challenge to process improvement, and the BPM process is no exception in this regard.

The Normandy Group enables our Clients by ensuring that the BPM process remains on track, this is critical to ensuring effective communication throughout the initiative. The Normandy Group ensures continuous alignment between business and IT; failure to keep business personnel engaged in the process can too readily result in IT solutions that fail to meet business goals. We will ensure that the chosen BPM system works with existing systems and is capable of supporting current business practices. Since one of the primary goals is to integrate processes across both people and systems, the BPM solution must be flexible enough to ensure that integration efforts can meet across the divide that has traditionally separated business and IT.

Having outlined these challenges, it is obvious that the first BPM project will be the hardest: familiarity and expertise with the method is most likely limited, and organizational reluctance (to yet another initiative) will likely be at its greatest. But with the completion of the BPM lifecycle and the delivery of measurable improvements, subsequent iterations to fine tune the process will be smoother, as will the undertaking of new BPM projects. As the iterative process of BPM unfolds, workers develop a more nuanced understanding of their workflow processes. At the same time, IT gains a more sophisticated understanding of the business processes they are supporting. For their part, business managers develop a better understanding of how technologies can support their needs, which increases their abilities to suggest targeted changes to the functionality of the composite application supporting their needs.

Benefits

The reasons for embarking on a business process management effort are as varied as the organizations that undergo the endeavor, but most organizations are driven by the following benefits:

• Increased customer retention: Gained through better, faster customer sales and services, as well as providing customers better access to resources and information through the various access channels.
  
  
• Reduced process time: Gained through process optimization and efficiencies. Shorter process cycle times speeds time to market and time to service.
  
  
• Improved regulatory compliance: Gained through improved process control, regulation and monitoring. One of the most effective ways to move toward compliance is to replace manual processes with automated ones, lowering the risk of errors and security breaches.
  
  
• Improved efficiencies: Across organizational boundaries such as departments, branches and trading partners (including both supply chain and outsourcing). Efficiencies are gained through improved visibility and control, as well as automation and integration.
  
  
• Reuse and create new IT assets: Through integration with legacy applications and the creation of new composite applications that help to overcome their limitations.
  
  
• Greater personal productivity and satisfaction: Resulting from greater insight into processes and improved workflow.
  
  
• Reduced risk: Reduced waste and more profitable allocation of human resources.
  
  
• Increased agility: Through compression of BPM lifecycle, allowing for more rapid process innovation and response to changing business conditions.